The Official Blog of Minnesota PGA

Importance of Club Fitting

How Club Fitting Can Improve Your Golf Game

One of the easiest ways to work on your game during a long Minnesota winter is to visit a pro shop. Not to buy clubs, but to get a proper fitting. Why? Because it will give you consistency. Many golfers mix and match the clubs they have collected over several seasons, and don’t get a good feel for the set as a whole. As 1989 Teacher of the Year Mike Barge says, “Fitting must be about set make-up. Your bag should contain 14 friends, meaning playable clubs that will land on the green and stop, and no clubs you intentionally avoid.” Club fitting can improve your golf game by helping you make those kinds of “friends.”

Technology Helps

Barge says the fitting process has become so much more precise with the introduction of launch monitors. “Instead of picking clubs that merely look and feel good,” says the Director of Instruction at Hazeltine, “we can get a player dialed in to what is good for them.” Fitting can provide a more predictable distance gap between clubs, and launch monitors can help dispel many of the myths golfers have about lofts, shafts and swing speed.

The technology behind club fitting and launch monitors can be complex, but the process makes it easy for the golfer. TaylorMade’s proprietary MAT-T System, for example, uses high speed cameras, a launch monitor that measures multiple statistics and custom software to capture thousands of data points in a golfer’s swing. Ball and club head speed, vertical and horizontal launch angles, spin rates, and carry and roll distances are all used to properly match a golfer’s individual swing characteristics to the set of clubs that will provide them the best opportunity to play to their full potential. The golfer simply takes a few swings with several different clubs and the system takes care of the rest (along with the expertise of your Section Professional).

Many Options

Most major manufacturers have club fitting programs to help golfers improve their games: Titleist, TaylorMade, Ping and Callaway all offer interesting options. Several companies have also gone a step farther, introducing comprehensive golf ball fitting programs, including Bridgestone and Titleist.

The fitting process may have historically been viewed as something just for pros and low handicap amateurs, but all golfers can benefit from this service. This is a win-win situation for both golfers and Section members: improved performance, confidence and comfort for players, with an opportunity to increase on-course pro shop sales. Many of these fitting programs are available indoors during the long Minnesota winter, so an off-season visit to a Minnesota Section Professional is all you need to start the fitting process, and look forward to a more enjoyable 2015 golf season.

The Minnesota Section PGA consists of PGA Professionals who are experts in the game and business of golf. Our mission is to promote the enjoyment and involvement of the game of golf and to contribute to its growth by providing services to golf professionals, the golf industry, people who play golf or would like to start playing golf.PGA Section Offices oversee the 41 geographic regions throughout the United States and provide the grass-roots network for the nation’s 25 million amateur golfers and with the PGA’s 27,000 members.